1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic diagnosis support system, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus, and an ultrasonic diagnosis support method for supporting diagnosis using ultrasonic images.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ultrasonic imaging apparatus comprises an ultrasonic probe comprising a plurality of ultrasonic transducers. The ultrasonic imaging apparatus transmits ultrasonic waves to a body to be examined through the ultrasonic probe and receives reflected waves from the body to be examined through the ultrasonic probe to generate ultrasonic image data (such as tomographic image data of a subject to be imaged) based on the reflected waves.
The ultrasonic images obtained by the ultrasonic imaging apparatus are used for medical examinations conducted by a medical examiner such as a doctor. For example, an ultrasonic imaging apparatus can be used for checking mammary glands (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication 2006-305337). Herein, a case of conducting a mammary gland check using an ultrasonic imaging apparatus is described. First, the examiner conducts an interview with a subject to be examined (a person) regarding their subjective symptoms (e.g., presence or absence of lumps in the breasts, tension, pain, etc.). Then, the examiner images the breasts of the subject to be examined with an ultrasonic imaging apparatus to obtain tomographic image data. Areas with subjective symptoms that have been declared by the subject being examined are examined carefully by imaging from a plurality of directions. The examiner then saves any image data of areas determined to require a medical examination by a medical examiner such as a doctor, or the examiner simply outputs the image. Later, an examiner (doctor) can conduct a medical examination based on the images that have been saved or output and contact the subject being examined regarding the results of the medical examination.
As described, a medical checkup using an ultrasonic imaging apparatus is conducted through an interview by an examiner, imaging with ultrasonic waves, and a medical examination by a medical examiner (doctor). Furthermore, checkups of mammary glands using an ultrasonic imaging apparatus are conducted through group checkups. In this group checkup, the examiner conducts an interview with a plurality of subjects to be examined one after another and conducts imaging with ultrasonic waves.
However, when a plurality of subjective symptoms is declared by a subject being examined, the examiner must distinguish each subjective symptoms separately to conduct examinations. Therefore, the workload of the examiner increases and there is a risk that details regarding subjective symptoms or declared areas are mistaken, or that the examiner forgets to examine areas requiring an examination.
Furthermore, if the examiner and the medical examiner (doctor) are not the same subject, the relationship between the subjective symptoms declared by the subject to be examined and the image obtained by the examiner may be unclear to the medical examiner. Thus, there is a risk that the image may be underutilized, when a medical examiner examines a subject to be examined.
Moreover, there are cases in which areas containing subjective symptoms that have been declared by a subject to be examined are not imaged by an examiner. In this case, because an image representing the area with the subjective symptom does not exist, the medical examiner is not able to examine the area declared to have subjective symptoms through an image. Even if the examiner and the medical examiner are the same subject, the same problems as above have occurred when the medical examiner examines a subject to be examined after a few days.